What does the Christ-child have in common with police dramas? What does Jesus, Saviour of the world have to do with The Bill, CSI and – for those of us who remember it – Z Cars? The answer is fingerprints!As I journey through Advent this year, I have been reminded afresh of the fingerprints of God as the Old Testament prophets point us to the coming Messiah. For example, writing 700 years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah proclaims: ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, And the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’ (Is 9:6). My research indicates that there are 48 major predictions of Jesus’ coming in the Old Testament. Fingerprints - fingerprints of the Messiah to come, of what it would look like when God came in human form, with a motive of love.So, this Advent, as I prepare to celebrate once again the birth of the Christ-child and reflect on the certainty of his return one day, I am trying to consciously be aware of seeing today’s fingerprints of God. As I live for Jesus everyday wherever I find myself, where do I see God at work, leaving his fingerprints behind? I wonder, will you join me in asking that question this Advent? I pray that as we ask that question, God may reveal his fingerprints, and that we might rejoice and with sincerity of heart respond… ‘O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel’.Archdeacon Martin
Holy Trinity Brompton (known as HTB), the largest church in the Church of England, is to have a new Vicar lead its 4,000-strong congregation.The former curate who pioneered its first ‘plant’ outside of London – the Revd Canon Archie Coates, 51, currently Vicar of St Peter’s Brighton, has been chosen as HTB’s Vicar Designate. It is expected that Canon Coates will become Vicar in September 2022, taking over from the Revd Nicky Gumbel, 66, who has announced his intention to resign his post from July 2022. Mr Gumbel has been Vicar of HTB since 2005 and has overseen considerable growth in that time. His books, which include Why Jesus? and Questions of Life, have been international best-sellers.HTB is located in Knightsbridge, west London, and comprises a large, young and diverse congregation including a significant number of students, youth and children. Eleven services take place each Sunday across six sites in South Kensington, Earl’s Court and on the Dalgarno estate in west London.It is home to the Alpha course, which was founded at HTB and is now running in over 30,000 churches of all denominations – including Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Salvation Army and Pentecostal – in 130 countries around the world.HTB has also pioneered a ministry of ‘church planting’ in partnership with dioceses across the Church of England and the Church in Wales. Scores of churches have been ‘planted’ across London and into other cities such as Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Gateshead, Lincoln, Liverpool, Norwich, Nottingham, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Preston, Rochdale, Southampton and Wrexham. The appointment of Canon Coates as Vicar Designate follows a thorough process of discussion and discernment, which considered a range of candidates for the post, and he was the unanimous choice of those involved in the decision, which included HTB’s Patrons, the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS), Keble College, Oxford, the Bishop of Kensington (representing the Bishop of London), HTB’s two Churchwardens (representing the HTB PCC) as well as trustees representing HTB’s associated charities – Alpha International, the Church Revitalisation Trust and St Paul’s Theological Centre. All have warmly welcomed the appointment.
Coventry Diocese is to receive £1.25 million in Strategic Development Funding (SDF) for outreach work in parishes serving estates and suburban areas in the city and the Warwickshire town of Bedworth. The projects are part of a plan to create 150 new worshipping communities in the diocese by 2030, reaching children and young people, families, elderly people and other groups such as homeless people. The funding will support activities such as a community choir, holiday and lunch clubs, pastoral support and Christian enquiry courses. In Bedworth, new worshipping communities will meet in venues including a working men’s club and a school.The Bishop of Coventry, Christopher Cocksworth, said: “This is a big moment in the Diocese of Coventry as we venture out on a life-giving work to build up our church communities and reach deeper into some of the most disadvantaged parishes in the diocese.”Separately, a £3.5 million grant has been awarded to Southwell and Nottingham diocese for work to support 40 churches reach children, families and young people over the next five years. The award, also from the Church of England’s Strategic Development Funding, will be used to train and commission leaders and volunteers to build on work already under way to reach children and families with the Christian message. The grants have been awarded as the Church of England outlines priorities in its Vision and Strategy for the future. This includes a goal of doubling the number of children and young people in churches and attracting more diverse congregations.Bishop of Sherwood, Andrew Emerton, said: “This is a vitally important project for us which aligns well with the national Church of England vision and seeks to transform children and families and youth ministry in churches across Southwell & Nottingham. “Investment will be focused on 40 churches, but we hope and pray that, empowered by the Spirit, we’ll see development across the diocese as learning and expertise is shared from these centres of strength”Debbie Clinton, Co-Director for the Church of England’s Vision and Strategy, said: “Becoming a church that is younger and more diverse emerged as a clear priority for the Church of England as part of its Vision and Strategy for the next ten years. “Coventry and Southwell and Nottingham dioceses have been working in this direction for some time and this investment builds on successful work to reach children, young people and young adults with the good news of the Gospel in those dioceses.”
NAZANIN ZAGHARI-RATCLIFFE and other dual-nationals detained in Iran are “embroiled in a great injustice not of their own making, in the face of which they are utterly powerless”, the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, has said.Speaking in a debate in the House of Lords last Thursday, Dr Francis-Dehani (see photo) said that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was a pawn in a political struggle between Britain and Iran over £400 million owed to the Tehran regime.“There are powers at play that can effect change and right this terrible wrong,” she said. She urged the Government to “unlock this intractable situation by paying the debt owed, so that we ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’.”Dr Francis-Dehqani, who was born in Iran and whose family sought refuge in Britain when she was a teenager (News, 14 July 2017), continued: “The British Government have acknowledged that this country owes a debt to Iran that is now 40 years overdue. This is not ransom money; it is a longstanding obligation. The payment of this debt would demonstrate something crucial about how Britain chooses to play her part in the world, with integrity and decency, honesty and trustworthiness. If Britain fulfils her obligations, Iran, too, must act from the best of her traditions, which exemplify beauty, honour, truth, and respect.”She recalled how, during the 1970s, the Christian community in Iran, where her father, the late Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, was the first Iranian Anglican bishop, experienced intense persecution. Her father was imprisoned, her mother was injured in an attack, and her brother was murdered.“I have experienced first-hand the sting of injustice — injustice born of being caught up in events that are bigger than we are and in the face of which we are powerless,” she said. “I remember well the chilling experience of a hand hovering over my father’s as he went to pick up the phone while our home was being raided by the authorities. It was a hand that prevented him calling for assistance as he helplessly watched the house being ransacked and his belongings destroyed.“None of this, however, has left me bitter or with ill will towards my homeland or my countryfolk — far from it. I retain a deep love for Iran and her people, and a desire to work for reconciliation with those of other faiths and across all the divides that we create as human beings.“Resolving this situation, this great injustice, to reunite a family who are innocent pawns in power struggles that have nothing to do with them requires the best of both civilisations involved.”The debate was opened by Lord Collins of Highbury, who praised Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard, for his campaign to get her freed, including a hunger- strike last month outside the Foreign Office (News, 5 November). “No one can fail to admire his determination and incredible resolve,” Lord Collins said.In March 2019, the UK Government gave Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection, saying that it represented formal recognition that her treatment failed to meet Iran’s obligations under international law and elevated it to a formal state-to-state issue.During Theresa May’s premiership, at least six trips to Iran were undertaken by five different ministers, in an effort to resolve the case, but no minister has gone there under her successor.“Nazanin’s status of diplomatic protection means that her ongoing torture is an injury to the United Kingdom itself,” Lord Collins said. “What are the Government doing to exercise diplomatic protection for Nazanin and to challenge the fact that she has been tortured?”
